ABSTRACT
The paper attempts to describe and elaborate on the relationship between policy analysis, planning and implementation and its relationship to development and state construction in a globalized world. In this attempt, the hurdles encountered in the complex and contradictory nature of planning and implementing public policy in the development of state construction are associated with the issues of global values, policy transfer, import of legislation, and restraining aspects of treaties and so forth. It is assumed that within this context, the attempts of individual states to carry through and successfully deliver socially inclusive and empowering developmental programmes and projects hinges on understanding and negotiating social change and transformation that ‘works with the grain of societies’ rather than brushing against it. This means exposing and refraining from imposing external public models that more often than not treat local political dynamics as dysfunctional. Acknowledging corruption and working within the public policy and political context in which it is rooted and functions, requires an in-depth understanding of the global dynamics and realities and their role as enabler and contributor to sustained/sustainable economic growth and development. To illustrate and ground this – to make it accessible to our students and development practitioners – we propose the utilization of case studies of Rwanda and South Africa which show that specific types of governance could be compatible with strong economic performance which can be considered broadly pro-growth, pro-rural and anchored in an institutional system that centralizes and distributes economic rents (with a view to the long term).
